RENTCO’ Racing’s Kris Walton has continued his strong form in an action packed day of practice for Round 7 of the 2014 Australian V8 Ute Racing Series - fuelled by Hogs Breath Café, Friday, 24th October at the Gold Coast 600.
Walton broke the lap record during the opening practice session, in a time that wasn’t to be beaten in a red flagged shortened second practice.
“Feeling pretty confident, we had a few dramas in practice 2 which was disappointing but having pace straight away here, it’s given me a lot of confidence,” said Walton.
The Gold Coast street circuit had its victims, none more so than Bathurst resident Terry Nightingale who found the wall at turn 2. After a race against time, Nightingale’s team managed to have the Securecorp Ford back on track for practice 2.
“I was probably driving a bit too hard straight out of the box. I was still on a high from Bathurst, it’s a different Ute that I haven’t driven before and my ambition outweighed my ability. The Williams Race Tech boys did a fantastic job to get the Ute back out there and we managed to make it out for the second session,” said Nightingale.
In scenes more reminiscent of peak hour traffic in Surfers Paradise, practice 2 was red flagged after the track became blocked at turn 13 when Jeremy “Lost It” Gray found the wall only to bounce back in front of the oncoming traffic.
“We were going well in the first part of the session until Rhys McNally blew a radiator and we got caught up in the fluid that he dropped and put us in the wall. I just feel sorry for the guys behind that got caught up in my accident,” said Gray.
Bathurst round winner Rhys McNally ended the day second fastest in the Stratco Holden with local star Ryal Harris third ahead of young gun Jesse Dixon.
David Sieders, looking to get his title challenge back on track, was 5th fastest with George Miedecke recovering from a brush with the wall to be 6th. Ryan Hansford was 7th in the Multispares Ford with Jesus Racing’s Andrew Fisher 8th ahead of the Murphy Motorsport duo of Elliot Barbour and Nathan Pretty.
The V8 Utes will be back on track for qualifying Saturday morning at 8:40am followed by Race 1, which will be televised live on Network Seven as well as Race 2 on 7Mate on Sunday (check local guides for more details).
See below full V8 Ute Schedule for the Gold Coast 600 weekend:Saturday, 25th October Qualifying 8:40amSaturday, 25th October Race 1 12:10pmSunday, 26th October Race 2 9:00amSunday, 26th October Race 3 12:00pm
